In the manufacture of modern vehicle propeller shaft assemblies, it is common practice to include a balancing process to identify and counteract an unbalanced condition of an assembled propeller shaft. A typical balancing process utilizes a balancing machine often included as one of the final operations in the overall manufacturing process of the propeller shaft assembly. The balancing machine will typically rotate the propeller shaft assembly at a predetermined speed and sense vibrations that can be caused by an unbalanced propeller shaft structure. The balancing machine can then identify where one or more balancing weights may need to be positioned on the propeller shaft assembly to counteract the vibrations caused by the unbalanced structure. In some instances, the vibrations sensed during the balancing process are of such a magnitude that they are not able to be counteracted with the balancing weights and the propeller shaft assembly then has to be re-worked or scrapped. Although such a balancing process is effective, it suffers from several drawbacks, including being a reactive process requiring the propeller shaft assembly to be fully built before the balancing process can be performed.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for a methodology to determine an imbalance condition of a propeller shaft assembly that overcomes the aforementioned and other drawbacks.